Nokia's XpressMusic series adds another device to its portfolio, which targets young music lovers with not-so-high budgets. The new Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is one of the latest mass-market mobile phones and it offers a complete music solution to those who are fans of the series. Before going into more details, I have to point out the fact that we will be seeing this device more like a music phone and we will not be so harsh regarding the other features that might interest users, such as: camera, GPS, memory, operating system, emailing and more. While including some of these features into the phone is a good idea, do not expect too high a quality from any of these, as the handset simply concentrates on the music aspect.
Announced at the beginning of November 2008, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic was made available on the market in February 2009. The candybar can be acquired for around 120USD, depending on location and plan.
Design In case you are familiar with Nokia's music phones, you'll definitely recognize the 5130 as belonging to the XpressMusic series. Even though it very much looks like its 5320 predecessor, the handset is made from a more stylish plastic that eliminates the idea of a cheap phone. The rounded shapes contribute even more to the nice feeling that you get when you keep the device in your hand. The aerodynamic shape will probably make you believe that it's smaller and slimmer than its 5320 brother, but the truth is that both devices are nearly the same in size. Nokia 5130 XpressMusic measures 107.5 x 46.7 x 14.8 mm and weighs around 88g (including battery). The shiny plastic that covers the insides of the phone, even though it makes it a fingerprint magnet, looks much better than the usual opaque plastic that is largely used for manufacturing the cheap handsets of the company.
The 2-inch display, while not the biggest, does its job well under almost any circumstances. The layout of the keypad is pretty relaxed, the keys being spacious enough and very responsive. I haven't noticed any controlling problems with the big D-pad in the middle; on the contrary. Around the main controller you'll be able to notice two available soft keys and the usual Accept and Reject ones. On both sides, in the upper part, the phone features a grid pattern that looks like two loudspeakers. In reality, only the left side sports some red LEDs that highlight the dedicated music keys when you start playing music. These lights are somewhat synchronized with the music sound, as they shine to the rhythm of the music.
The dedicated music keys have been placed right under these LEDs, on the left side of the device: Forward, Play/Pause, Back. On the right side there's a small microSD slot card and two volume keys. The 3.5mm jack port together with the microUSB and charging ports have been placed on top of the phone. The 2 Megapixel camera on the back doesn't feature any flash or autofocus capabilities, but that's understandable if we think about the target of the handset. The camera lens is somewhat protected by a metallic frame, but I don't think that it will be used too often anyway.
Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is definitely a win in terms of design. Much more attractive than most of its series predecessors, the phone will definitely bring the Finnish giant a big chunk of profits on the medium-to-low music phone market.
Display and Camera Nokia 5130 features a 2 inch-TFT display, supporting 262 million colors and a 240x320 pixel resolution. Besides its small size, the screen is pretty good, in accordance with Nokia's standards, but performs a little bit lower compared with 16 million color displays. Its eligibility in the sunlight is pretty good, but forget about trying to distinguish any colors on the screen.
The 2 Megapixel camera lacks any advanced features, which makes it somewhat useless, as quality of the pictures is very low. No autofocus, no flash and very low video recording don't really recommend this phone for its camera.
The maximum resolution that users can set to take pictures is that of 1600x1200 pixels. The maximum one that can be used for movie recording is of 176x144 pixels (QCIF at 15fps). The basic interface of the camera only includes standard features that don't really change the quality aspects of the pictures. Moreover, the camera seems to be a little bit more sluggish than I anticipated. You can try to make some adjustments to your pictures by using some of the camera's settings: White balance and Effects.
Check out the samples below for a more accurate opinion about the quality of the photo snapper. I do not recommend getting this phone for its camera, but neither do I suggest that this is a negative point of the candybar.
Menu and Software Nokia 5130 XpressMusic runs on an S40 5th Edition interface with Feature Pack 1, which is the latest user-interface coming from the manufacturer. If you owned a Nokia handset before and it didn't have a Symbian OS, then this candybar will probably feel the same. One of the most user-friendly interfaces on the market, the S40 seems unchanged on the surface, and offers the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic user an excellent experience. The phone's firmware include Flash 3.0, animated menus, submenus and icons.
Nokia's Series 40 5th Edition UI allows you to experience streaming videos, image rendering, mobile 3D graphics and scalable 2D Vector graphics. The Series 40 5th Edition also supports the latest version of Adobe's Flash Lite 2.1, the interoperable platform that enables the accelerated development and delivery of rich graphical mobile content, and includes audio file playback and streaming capabilities that provide audio and music enhancements to mobile gaming and the multimedia experience.
The handset also includes some useful applications, such as Search, Alarm clock, Calendar, To-do list, Notes, Calculator, Countdown timer, World Clock and Stopwatch. The menu is fully customizable and you can designate any MP3, MIDI or AAC file as ringtone. The candybar comes with Opera Mini browser installed by default, so the experience will be smooth.
The phonebook can store up to 2,000 contacts, and each can be filled with up to six different phone numbers. The fonts can be customized, but only those displayed when opening Contacts, Web browser and messaging sections.
Also, some Java games come preinstalled – Bounce Tales, Rally 3D and Snake III. The handset is compatible with Java MIDP 2.1 applications, but there is a limit to the size of any app that you might want to install on the phone, and that's the usual 1MB. This might be the case for most Java-compatible applications, but I noticed that I could run some files that were around 1.5MB in size. Nevertheless, not all Java apps will work on this mid-end device, so you might want to try that out for yourselves.
Communication Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is fully compatible with GPRS and EDGE Class 32 but, as benchmarks revealed, it attained average scores in terms of data transfer speed (EDGE only 165 Kbit/s download and 63 Kbit/s upload); however, that may greatly vary depending on location and carrier.
The phone also features Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and EDR for faster data transfers. Synchronization with PC is possible through the proprietary microUSB port, but charging through USB cable is not available.
In terms of messaging, the device accepts standard text messages, MMS (300 KB attachments), as well as emails. The message client works with POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols, and supports more than one email account.
The quad-band (GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network-compatible candybar has a good GSM signal reception. The sound is above average in quality at both ends, and pretty loud.
Processor and Memory Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is most likely powered by an ARM9 family processor running at speeds of up to 220 MHz. While not the fastest phone on the market, it won't lag more than its class competitors when browsing through the menus.
The candybar embeds 30MB of user free internal memory, which can be expanded as the phone features a microSD slot card. The handset comes with a 1GB microSD memory card in the sales package, and Nokia says that users can expand the memory up to 2GB, though I have tested it with an 8GB card.
While it really takes longer to read all the information on the memory card, it has been proved that it works with higher-capacity memory cards. Still, I experienced freezes when I tried to start the phone's camera, which had been set to store pictures on the memory card. I do not suggest using microSD cards higher than 2GB, but if you really want to do it, try to set the camera to store pictures on the phone's memory.
Multimedia As a music device, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic should include advanced multimedia features to please target customers – music lovers. Seeing as how the company is already known for the fact that its XpressMusic-series phones include a dedicated audio chip for decoding MP3 files, there's no reason why we shouldn't have high hopes with 5130 model, even though it's only a mid-budget handset.
The product comes with Nokia Music Headset WH-102 headset, but you can easily dispose of this and add a better one, as Nokia 5130 XpressMusic features a 3.5mm jack port. The music player interface looks exactly like previous XpressMusic series music players, and supports an impressive number of file types (including MP3, WMA and eAAC+). I was impressed by both its loudspeaker sound quality as well as music player sound. Nokia 5130 is definitely one of the best choices in its price range for those going after a music phone with high-battery autonomy. The music player features an Equalizer that includes five available settings, Stereo widening, Loudness and Balance.
The FM radio has a standard interface, and can automatically scan and save the available stations. It features RDS support but lacks Visual radio. Both functions, radio and music player, respectively, can be run in the background with no problems.
Nokia 5130 also includes Real player for playing video clips. The video player can be displayed in both normal and fullscreen modes. Unfortunately, the small screen makes the whole experience rather frustrating.
Battery The 1020 mAh Li-Ion (BL-5C) battery has an officially stated life expectancy of 288 hours in standby and of about 6 in talk time mode. Also, Nokia states a music autonomy of almost 1 day (22 hours). Our test unit managed to play music continuously for around 19 hours. Moreover, talk time was pretty decent, as we only needed to charge the unit every 3 days, but after extensive usage.
Reader
amruthraj says:
excellent but i have to carry three batteries per day
Reader
nadeem says:
i've bought this mob last week the battery backup is very poor is there any solution 4 this
Reader
John says:
battery life not so good , however you can get a least about 15 hours playback on music, confirmed that
After getting a little bit bored by the XpressMusic series, I'm finally glad that I gave 5130 model a chance. I was impressed by the quality of its sonic experience, as well as its stylish design. Nokia managed to throw on the market a more-than-decent device at a very good price. I just hope that youngsters are not still disappointed by some older XpressMusic devices and give 5130 a chance, since they will be thrilled.
The GoodThe first things I would like to mention here are the nice finishes, the easy-to-handle music controls, excellent music sound, and good shiny plastic that improves the usual XpressMusic design. Also, one of the most important things, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic can be bought for a decent price, while it offers excellent features.
The BadI would've liked to see a more decent camera and the possibility to add a better memory card. Even though some higher-capacity cards might work with the device, it doesn't officially offer support for these. I also think that the short microUSB cable that comes with the phone is a joke, as you can only use it while keeping your handset near the USB port.
Sales Package Nokia 5130 XpressMusic handset
Nokia Battery 1020 mAh (BL-5C)
Nokia Charger (AC-3)
Nokia Headset (WH-102)
Nokia 1 GB microSD card (MU-22)
Nokia Connectivity Cable (CA-101D)
Compact User Guide
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